Our streets criss cross rolling hills and flat land alike. A river lazily flows through the City Park, and forks before exiting town. The business district on Fourth Street proudly displays late 19th-century architecture in the buildings made with locally-mined quartzite. The train still comes and goes from town. The natural beauty of the quartzite cliffs in the Dells remains timeless.

Perhaps we take our quartzite structures for granted sometimes. The buildings downtown, St. Mary Academy, the Odd Fellows Home, the Library, the Lutheran Church, the bath house and amphitheater in the park – these are the most prominent.

But those who built Dell Rapids used quartzite as a solution to many challenges.
When I was a kid, there was a drainage ditch lined with quartzite, which ran all the way from the river to just north of Tenth Street. Much of it has been replaced with culverts and modern drainage applications over the years, but there is much of it that still remains.

The quartzite drainage system is still visible for several blocks. It can be found on Sixth Street, between Garfield and State avenues, and can be followed all the way the to the river from there, emptying into the Big Sioux at the south end of State Street. Sadly, it has fallen into disrepair.

As kids, we explored the drainage ditches and came to know them well. Pretending we were re-fighting the great war behind enemy lines, we could jump in the ditch on Garfield in front of St. Mary's and pop our heads out behind Boyer Brothers Station. We could jump in the ditch between Frank Greening's and Harvey Blow's yards, and come out behind Smokey's. The Krauts didn't have a chance against us.

There aren't many towns in South Dakota with quartzite drainage ditches. Let's hope we have the foresight to save this part of our history.